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WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Junior Wes Cole set a school record in three-point field goals made on Monday afternoon as the University of Hartford men's basketball team led from start-to-finish to hand UMass Lowell a 69-51 loss at the Chase Family Arena. The Hawks (9-11) push their record in league play above .500 at 3-2 while the River Hawks, who had won three of their last four, drop to 4-13 overall with a 3-3 mark in the conference.

Replacing an injured Evan Cooper in the starting lineup, Cole made his first career start one for the record books, knocking-down 10-of-20 shots from long range to finish with a career-high of 30 points in front of 2,772 fans. The guard put down Joe Zeglinski's six-year old record of nine treys in a game set on Feb. 17, 2008 against New Hampshire.

Just one other player has hit more three-pointers in a game this season in all of Division I basketball as R.J. Hunter of Georgia State converted on 12 last month.

Cole also ended a three-year drought of 30-point scorers, netting the most points since Zeglinski dropped 33 against Maine on Feb. 10, 2011. Hartford, which was minus two of its starters, finished with 14 triples, the most all season, to pick up its fourth win in five games.

Classmate Corban Wroe also enjoyed a career day for the Hawks, coming one rebound short of completing his first-ever double-double bid. Going 5-of-10 from the field, the junior guard matched career-highs in both points (11) and rebounds (9). Hartford dominated the boards, outrebounding UMass Lowell by a 38-30 margin.

Junior Yolonzo Moore II rounded out Hartford's top scorers with 11 points while Akeem Williams continued his hot streak for the River Hawks, netting 21 points.

Thanks to Cole's hot hands, Hartford came out firing from the start, jumping out to a 9-2 lead two minutes behind a trio of triples from the guard. After a three-ball from Williams, who had 10 points at the half, the Hawks went to work and ripped off 16-straight points to take a commanding 25-5 advantage with 12:47 left.

Fueling that run was three more makes from long range from Cole, while junior Mark Nwakamma also added a three of his own to help the Hawks push their lead to 20. Hartford drilled three more from downtown before the end of the half, matching its season-best total (10) in the game's first 20 minutes.

Back-to-back buckets by juniors Jamie Schneck and Wroe provided the Hawks with their largest lead of the half (23), but the River Hawks made a run before intermission, cutting the lead to 14 (35-21) with a 12-3 spurt. Sophomore Taylor Dyson ended the stanza with his second three of the game, though, to put Hartford in front by a comfortable 38-21 margin at halftime.  

Cole was still feeling it from behind the arc in the second half as he hit one with 13:09 on the clock and went on to break the record by draining three-in-a-row within a 77 second span.

Hartford led by as many as 25 points in the second half and maintained a comfortable cushion the entire way. UMass Lowell got as close as 12 when a Chad Holley layup made it 46-32 with 14:09 left to play, but the Hawks responded with five-straight points to go back up by 17.

The Hawks held the River Hawks to 36.7-percent shooting (18-of-49) and finished the game shooting at a 41.9-percent (26-of-62) clip.

Two road games lie ahead of the Hawks as they first travel to Vestal, N.Y., on Thursday to take on the Binghamton Bearcats at 7 p.m. Fans can watch the action live on www.AmericaEast.TV or they can tune-in to Jeff Dooley and Randy LaVigne on the radio broadcast on 1290 AM (www.wccc.com online).